


forget to smile

by Pomfry



Series: I am the same, I'm the same (I'm trying to change) [5]
Category: Servamp (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Because what would this be if it didn't have Shakespeare, Depression, Dysfunctional Relationships, Family Issues, Fucked up beliefs, Gen, Reference to death, Shakespeare Quotations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 18:36:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14858075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pomfry/pseuds/Pomfry
Summary: Hyde is just sotired.He’s been tired for years now. He wakes up and feels like he could go back to sleep and never open his eyes again. He knows that it would devastate Kuro, would leave the rest of his family in despair, but -But he doesn’t care. He just wants to sleep and never wake up again.





	forget to smile

**Author's Note:**

> don't trust hyde's saying of their age. as an older sibling, i can confirm that sometimes we forget our younger siblings age.

Hyde's been free for a year when he meets Licht. He wakes up, still feeling that same numbness he’s felt since Ophelia’s blood sprayed on the walls, since he woke up to Kuro screaming at their Creator. He wakes up and he stares at the ceiling. Tsubaki is crying, he hears and turns over to see Hugh picking him up, rocking him back and forth, carefully rubbing at the junction between wing and skin. Freyja and World End are playing downstairs, and from the sound of it, World End is crashing into things.

He sighs, sits up. Kuro is already gone for work, it seems, and Lily is sitting in Jeje’s lap, trying to learn how to read more complicated words. There’s no need for him.

Hyde is just so  _ tired. _ He’s been tired for years now. He wakes up and feels like he could go back to sleep and never open his eyes again. He knows that it would devastate Kuro, would leave the rest of his family in despair, but -

But he doesn’t care. He just wants to sleep and never wake up again.

His wings need preening. He’s getting too old to go out into the streets - his wingspan is big. He could hide them under clothes like Kuro does, but he prefers them out, prefers them free.

“Oh, Hyde.” Hugh gives him a distracted smile. “Can you go make sure they aren’t breaking anything? You know how they get when they get caught up in their games.”

Hyde rolls his eyes but does as he’s told, folding his wings into the resting position across his back. World End is shouting something, and Hyde doesn’t even want to know what he’s doing. They’re probably fighting.

“Oi!” He hollers, sliding down the stair railing. Sure enough, Freyja is yelling with her hands on her tiny hips and World End is howling something right back. “What are you two doing? You woke Tsubaki up.”

“Hyde!” World End turns to him, breaks into a run, and rams into his legs. Hyde wavers, almost losing his balance, but he stays on his feet. He’s used to these attacks. “She - she said I was stupid!”

Freyja gasps. “I did not!” she screeches, face turning red. “I just said that your game was dumb!”

Hyde groans. They’re like, eight, and constantly  _ fight. _

“Okay!” He claps his hands. “Freyja, don’t call his games dumb, you’re calling him dumb by association. World End, don’t throw things. I know you smashed that chair.”

World End has the decency to look guilty. “Okay,” he mumbles, letting go of Hyde’s legs and shuffling on his feet. “Sorry.”

“Just - be quiet.” Hyde sighs - he’s been doing that a lot - and grabs the long coat on the floor. He thinks that it’s a trenchcoat. “Tell Hugh that I’m going out.”

“Wait!” Freyja grabs his sleeve. “You know we’re not supposed to go out!”

Hyde pulls it out of her hand, slipping the other sleeve on. “And I don’t care,” he retorts, turning on his heel and marching out the door.

He really doesn’t. He knows that Kuro is only thinking of their safety, knows that it’s probably for the best, but - that house is so stifling sometimes. It’s filled to the brim with family, and there’s no quiet place for him to read his plays. He loves them, he does, it’s just -

Well. They’re exhausting to be around.

Hyde slips through the crowds, feet carrying to his destination on automatic. He’s gone there enough for it to be muscle memory, certainly

He reaches the rickety ladder and climbs it, hands and feet finding all of the secure spots he needs. This is a good place to be for when he needs to calm down, and nobody knows about it. It’s a sectioned off part of the building, one where nobody should be able to go, but Hyde can go up high where it’s not a problem. The floor is weak in a lot of places, rotten through, and no sane person would come in here. Thus, the perfect hiding spot.

“Oh, rehearsal’s starting,” Hyde mutters as he flies up to the rafters.

This place is a theatre.

“Oh Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?” a woman cries, her face shining in the light. Hyde leans forward, interest spiking. This is Shakespeare, one of his favorite playwrights of all time, even if Romeo and Juliet is one of Hyde’s least favorite of his works.

The piano plays in the background, soft and mournful as Juliet says her lines, and Hyde’s ears pick up on it. He’s always had sharper hearing than most. It sounds better than it usually does, which means that it’s a new player. But who?

“Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?” Hyde murmurs with Romeo, eyes trained on that piano player. She has long black hair and elegant pianist fingers, eyes trained on the sheet music in front of her. She’s a very good musician, Hyde must admit, and he wouldn’t mind hearing more of her music.

“Licht?”

The word breaks the spell, breaks the rhythm of the play. Romeo and Juliet become actors again, the pianist stops playing. A man with hair braided to the side rushes on stage, clearly looking for something. Hyde rolls his eyes. Probably just a tech crew person

“Licht? Where are you? I told you to stay with me!” the man shouts, a bit desperate, and the woman stands, elegant despite the fact that she’s in jeans and a button-up shirt.

“Licht?” she calls, and Hyde pulls up short. Did they bring a kid to practice?

Scrambling reaches his ears, and Hyde swings around to see a boy with the same black hair as the woman step carefully around the rotten wood bits. His eyes are narrowed in concentration, his little wing backpack thumping against his back with every hop.

“Black, white, black white.” He takes a light jump to the right. “Minor, major, minor, major.”

So this must be Licht, Hyde thinks, and grins, swinging his feet.

“Hey,” he says loudly. “You know they’re looking for you, right?”

Licht blinks, looks up, and puts his foot in the wrong place. Hyde’s eyes widen, Licht bites out a curse, and then the kid falls.

Here’s the thing. Hyde has been numb for…years, really. He’s been numb since Ophelia told him it’s okay and had her head blown off. He’s been numb since Kuro killed the Creator. He’s nursed this twisted, silent belief that all lives are meaningless, including his own.

But - that kid looks like his siblings did when Creator came for them, fear barely hidden on his face, hands scratching against the wood. People are shouting for him, and if he fell no one would find the body, not for a few days at the least.

He looks so scared. Like World End, like Lily. Like Freyja and Hugh and Kuro and Jeje. He looks so scared and -

Hyde lunges forward, wings keeping him steady, and pulls Licht out, holding him against his chest as he flaps once, twice, and reaches the rafters.

Licht is shaken, it’s true, but his attention is more occupied by Hyde’s wings. “An angel,” he breathes, eyes sparkling, and Hyde laughs, rough.

“Not an angel,” he disagrees, and nothing has ever been so true. “More like a demon.”

Licht’s eyes narrow as he pulls on the straps on his bag.  _ “Demon,”   _ he hisses, no more wonder, and kicks Hyde’s leg. Hyde chokes on his laughter - Licht kicks hard.

Then Licht pauses, considers. “I can save you,” he says. “I’m an angel and can purify you. You aren’t that far gone.”

Hyde raises an eyebrow. What kind of delusional world is this kid living in? “Okay,” he says dubiously.

Licht’s face turns wrathful, and he kicks Hyde right off the rafters. “Don’t doubt me! Shit rat!”

And that, as they say, is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

**Author's Note:**

> licht you lil shit
> 
> Comments are always loved and brighten up my day and are saved in my Gmail.
> 
> Also! Here's my [Tumblr.](http://nikescaret.tumblr.com) Come visit and chat with me if you want!


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